So, what exactly is Upward-ish?

I didn’t plan on starting over in my 50s.

I’m not sure anyone does.

You build a life. You make plans. You get very good at certain things. You accumulate people, routines, responsibilities, furniture, passwords you can’t remember, and an alarming number of resusable grocery bags.

And then sometimes life goes sideways. Not necessarily all at once. Sometimes it’s one big thing. Sometimes it’s twelve smaller things that apparently held a meeting and decided to arrive together.

That’s where Upward-ish came from.

I’m Marie. I’m 56, Swedish, living in Maine, working from home, trying to stay strong, figuring out what comes next, and rebuilding parts of my life I didn’t expect to be rebuilding.

I’m not interested in pretending that every difficult thing is secretly a blessing. Sometimes something sucks because it sucks. I’m also not interested in the idea that starting over means burning your entire life down, buying a linen jumpsuit, moving to Bali and announcing that you’ve finally becoming your authentic self.

Sometimes rebuilding looks much less impressive. It looks like getting organized. Learning how something works because somebody else always handled it for you. Making a phone call you’ve been avoiding. Going for a walk. Updating your resume. Figuring out the finances. Moving your body even though you are absolutely not feeling inspirational. Doing something alone for the first time. Or eating crackers over the sink while wondering what the hell happened.

Still counts.

Upward-ish is about moving life in a better direction without pretending the direction is always perfectly upward.

I want this to become a place for useful information, practical tools, stories, humor, and things I’m learning the hard way. We’ll talk about work, independence, movement, health, home, travel, relationships, starting over, and the weird little logistics nobody puts on those pesky inspirational quote cards.

And underneath all of it is one idea I keep coming back to: The second half doesn’t have to be the smaller half.

I don’t know exactly what mine is going to look like yet and that is sort of the point.

We keep going. Upward-ish.